1. Statement of the Technical Field
The invention concerns wireless communications equipment, and more particularly, software defined radio supporting a software communications architecture.
2. Description of the Related Art
A software defined radio (SDR) is a programmable and reconfigurable system that provides a flexible and scaleable architecture. Such a radio system typically supports many different communication waveforms, thus facilitating improved communications among users, such as government agencies and government services.
A typical software architecture for an SDR comprises an operating environment and software applications, such as a waveform application or a communications application. The operating environment includes a real time operating system, a middleware component, and a framework to manage applications. An example of such an architecture is the Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JTRS) Software Communications Architecture (SCA). The middleware typically is a common object request broker. Similar to traditional computer systems, the SDR's operating environment needs to be booted upon user activation of the system. In a typical SDR, the SCA infrastructure, operating environment and waveform services must be initialized before a simple communications application can be run. The operating environment and the software applications are typically booted in a specified sequence upon user activation of the system.
A typical boot sequence for a software defined radio includes five boot layers. For example, the device drivers are typically loaded first. After the device drivers are loaded, the operating system is loaded, followed by the common object broker and the core framework. Once the full operating environment is loaded, the platform devices and services (i.e., common object request broker architecture (CORBA) components) are loaded. Subsequently, any other software applications are launched.
In such a boot processing, the formal separation between the operating environment and the software applications, in conjunction with the use of a common object request broker and the large size of these executable components, causes the SDR to boot rather slowly. A SDR using this boot processing method typically powers up in two (2) to fifteen (15) minutes. This is a long time period compared to a traditional radio system's boot processing which typically takes five (5) to thirty (30) seconds.
A person can appreciate the need in a military context of being able to use a radio device almost instantaneously in emergency situations. For example, in a time-critical situation, such as when a group of armed forces come under attack, the need to be able to relay information between other members of the armed forces as quickly as possible is absolutely necessary. Accordingly, a boot process is needed which takes a shorter amount of time to power up the SDR to the point where it is able to perform critical or emergency communications.